Bethyl Alternative Ending
by JustARegularGirl
Summary: In mourning Beth's death, I wrote my own alternative ending. Not only did they survive after getting attacked at the prison but, Daryl's feelings for Beth have grown. Once they've finally admitted their love for one another, things seem to escalate and the star crossed lovers are found struggling to find one another once again. This story follows the paths of Daryl and Beth.
1. After The Attack

**After the Attack**

Daryl and Beth sat silently while they vigorously ate what Daryl called "White Trash Brunch" consisting of pigs feet, diet cola, peanut butter, and jelly. Beth began to write a note, thanking the absent residents for the food when they'd return.

"We could stay" Daryl said, "We can stay for a while and if they come back, we can try and make it work."

Surprised Beth asks, "What changed your mind?" he was silent.

"You know?" Daryl stares at Beth until she realizes, she changed his mind.

They heard a bark at the door from a dog that had already startled them once, upset about the noise it was making, Daryl ran to open the door with a jar of pigs feet in his hand.

Then it all happened so fast, Daryl is rushed with a group of walkers and screams for Beth, telling her to grab her stuff and meet him up the road.

 _ **"I'm not leaving you!"**_ she screamed. As Daryl led the walkers down to the basement where he had nothing but his crossbow and his bare arms as his weapons.

Once he was able to escape, Daryl ran outside to meet Beth but finds her stuff on the floor and a car driving away with a white cross on the back window.

They took Beth! Daryl runs after the car but Beth was gone and Daryl was all alone.


	2. Reunited

**Reunited**

Daryl finds himself running all throughout the night in pursuit of this car who must have been miles away by now. He falls exhausted in the middle intersection of 3 roads. In that road he sat in exhaustion, he didn't know where Beth was taken, he didn't know who, had taken her. All he could think about was that she was gone.

After a couple moments of sitting on that road, Daryl was then confronted by a group of 6 men with guns. The leader spoke to Daryl and found interest in him allowing him to join their group if he'd like. Daryl looked at the men and didn't think he had much to lose. He knew they were bad, he just didn't know how bad.

Daryl and Beth had lost Rick and everyone at the prison weeks ago when they were attacked by the governor. He didn't have hope in ever finding anyone at the prison, he didn't know if they had even survived.

Daryl spent a couple days with these men, learning their ways and adapting to their "rules". He thought they were stupid but, "It was something" he thought. It wasn't until the group of men had found the man who had killed one of their own, that Daryl knew the situation wasn't going to be an easy one, so he left.

But before he left something drove Daryl to at least, see who it was that these men were looking for and had now found.

It was Rick! It was Rick, Carl, and Michonne!

Immediately Daryl intervenes, to stop the situation from escalating and gives himself up in place of Rick.

Daryl is then beat half to death while Rick has a gun pointed to his head.

Rick then takes control of the situation and does what needs to be done, those men are dead and Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl are all alive.


	3. In The End

**In The End**

A couple days pass and they decide to follow the train tracks where a map signaled they would be led to a sanctuary. At that sanctuary they are met with survivors from the prison! The sanctuary ended up being a horrible place where they were held captive for food but once escaped, the reunited group found refugee at a church. While scavenging both Daryl and Carol run into a car similar to the one that had taken Beth, with the white cross and instantly decide to follow it.

In their journey to find Beth, they are encountered with Noah, a guy that knew Beth and had escaped from the Hospital she had been held at for the last couple of weeks. Noah is then convinced to help Daryl save Beth but first, they must go back for the others. Rick, Tyrese, Sasha, Glenn, and Carl, all joined Daryl on his mission to save Beth. They came up with a plan to avoid anyone getting hurt. They must find and hold hostage two of the hospital people and plan to trade them in for Beth.

Once they had their hostages, a proposal was made to trade Beth in. The other group agrees with the trade and they move forward.

At this hospital they are confronted with the other group and their leader, Dawn. They make the trade Daryl looks at Beth and smiles with just his eyes for they may still not be safe.

"Now I just need Noah" Dawn said.

"That is not the deal." Rick answered.

"It's ok, I'll go with her." Noah moves forward and joins Dawn.

"Wait!" Beth runs to hug Noah.

"I knew you'd come back." Dawn says.

Beth then looks at Dawn and says, "I get it." and stabs her in the chest. Dawn reacts in a second shooting straight through Beth's head.

There's blood everywhere, splattered on Rick and Daryl's faces.

Daryl looks at Beth and does not hesitate to shoot Dawn between the eyes.

Daryl cries for Beth as he carries her body out of the hospital to join Maggie who was just arriving with Michonne.

Daryl dropped to his knees as he held Beth's now unliving body tight in his arms. He then whispered into her ear, "It was you, you changed my mind Beth".

Daryl had finally told Beth that she was the one who had changed his mind, who had given him hope and somewhat of a reason to live. She was the light in the darkness, she was the one who brightened Daryl's life, but now, she was gone.

ALTERNATE ENDING:

Daryl is then woken up, he laid in a coffin in that abandoned house where they were fully stocked on "White Trash Brunch". His eyes widened as the sun shined through the cracks of the wood nailed onto the windows. He took a deep breath trying to comprehend what had just happened. He then sat up and there stood Beth smiling at him, "Come on Daryl Dixon, you won't be missing me today."


	4. When Our Eyes Meet

Daryl and Beth had come to accept that they were the only two survivors from the prison. They were fortunate to have found each other and clueless to say they're feelings for one another were growing.

BETHS PERSPECTIVE.

Daryl struggled to shake off the horrible dream he had just had, he shook his head side to side and rubbed his face, slowly coming back to reality. I stood there smiling at him and said, "You know, you talk in your sleep right?"

"I do?!" Daryl asked, "Yeah and I want you to know, I will never intentionally leave you Mr. Dixon."

He had mumbled in his sleep about looking for me and once he found me he struggled with saving me and at some point throughout his mumbles I think he lost me and for that reason the last couple of mumbles he seemed to be crying.

I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable by asking him if he wanted to talk about it. I just wanted to let him know I was here for him.

"Breakfast Mr. Dixon?" I asked. He jumped off the coffin landing on his feet and said, "Heck yeah".

We walked over to the kitchen and sat at the table where the peanut butter and jelly were already set out. Daryl and I ate in silence as he scoffed down a jar of peanut butter. "I think I should write a note thanking the people who were here and left the food, you know just in case they return."

I turned to look at Daryl's reaction to my kind thought, his face was still as he dropped the peanut butter jar and quickly sat up, walked out of the kitchen and out the door. Confused about his reaction, I followed him.

"Daryl! Stop, where are you going?!" He was walking fast and had his crossbow ready to shoot. "Daryl stop!" I yelled and he quickly turned making me run straight into his chest, we were now face to face.

We were so close I felt a bit strange. I moved just a little closer and Daryl dropped his crossbow, grabbed my face with both his hands and kissed me. It was a huge surprise but I couldn't hold back, I kissed him and I could not stop.

After a couple moments we both stopped to catch our breaths, "I don't want to lose you Beth". I grabbed his hands that held each side of my face and said, "You will never loose me Daryl, never." He then kissed me lightly and picked up his crossbow threw it over his shoulder and walked quickly back to the house.

"We have to go!" he said. "What, why?! We have food and a house?" he then stopped and I almost ran into him again, "We can't stay here, it aint a good place." Confused I continued following him back into the house and began to pack our things. We took all the food there was and packed a tent and blankets. Daryl then called out for me "Beth lets go!"

I was confused about the whole situation, why were we leaving, why did he just burst out of the house?

That night Daryl and I set up camp in the middle of the woods. I finished setting up the tent while Daryl put out the fire, "Are you coming?" I said as I stepped inside the tent. He then stared at me and bit his lip in hesitation, as he usually did, "Come on!" I said and he stepped in.

Once inside, he sat down and leaned his elbows on his knees, I sat next to him and crossed my legs.

"What are you thinking about Daryl?" he rubbed his thumb against his lip. "You." he then turned to face me. I slightly leaned into him and he turned his face forward then down and said, "I don't know if this is ok."

"Why shouldn't it be?" I took a deep breath, "I think I'm falling in love with you Daryl Dixon." I said nervously waiting for his response.

He then turned to me and grabbed my face with both his hands kissing me passionately as I caressed his chest. I then lay on my back as he got on top of me and wrapped my legs around him as he began to rub himself on me. We began to breathe harder and I began to unbutton his shirt as he kissed my neck.

We then heard something outside!

We both stopped, Daryl quickly grabbed his crossbow and I made sure I had my knife. Daryl stepped outside the tent holding up his hand signaling me to stay inside.

I watched him as he carefully checked our surroundings and found nothing. A little frightened I asked, "What was it?"

"I don't know. Could be nothing." he said coming back inside the tent, "I guess the moments over huh?" he said as he lay on his back and I laid next to him resting my head on his shoulder and my hand on his chest. Before I knew it we were both fast asleep.


	5. Parting Ways

Beth's POV

The next morning when I woke Daryl was already up. I carefully unzipped the tent and walked outside only to see him making his way back to the camp, "Where did you go?" I asked.

"Jus checkin out the area, how'd ya sleep?" he asked.

"I slept good, Daryl, where are we going?" I asked.

"Away from here, pack up your things so we can leave." I began to get our stuff ready as Daryl helped with his. I was confused, why was he acting the way he was. Yesterday we kissed for the first time but instead of being happy about it and wanting to talk about it, he was just acting really strange.

Daryl's Perspective

I woke up trying to brush off that horrible dream I had just had. What did it all mean? I felt relieve to see the sun shining through the window cracks and it felt even better when I heard Beth's voice and knew it was all just a dream.

I couldn't believe the dream I thought about giving her a big hug but, I didn't want to make her feel weird. Besides she had no idea how I felt about her.

We sat in the kitchen as we began to eat and Beth decided to write a note for the people that once lived there. But no, that was exactly what happened in my dream, I couldn't allow that dream to come true, I had to change things.

I got up so quick bursting outside the door leaving Beth in questions. I held my crossbow high I wanted to make sure there weren't any walkers on their way and I wasn't going to wait for them either. Beth ran after me asking a million questions. I turned to face her that she ran into me and came really close.

I couldn't keep holding my feelings back from her, I had to show her how I felt about her. So when she moved just a tiny bit closer to me, I had to kiss her. I had to show her how I loved her. I kissed her so passionately I dropped my crossbow and grabbed her face with both of my hands and did not stop.

Once we stopped to catch our breaths I told her that I never wanted to lose her and for that reason we had to leave before that god awful dream came true. I ran back to the house as Beth followed me and asked her to help pack all of our things.

I didn't know where we were going or if things were going to be okay, I just didn't want us to stay at that house, I didn't want to make things go the way they were in that dream.

We walked the entire day and finally set up camp in the middle of the woods. Beth helped set up the tent as I began to put out the fire. She then invited me to join her inside the tent and I thought ok, why not?

Beth tried kissing me and I thought whether it was right for us to kiss or not, I didn't know if I was right at all or if she even felt the same way I did. But I really did love her and when she told me that she was falling in love with me, I just couldn't help but kiss her and not stop.

I wanted to love her and so we began to kiss passionately as I rubbed myself against her but then I heard something outside. I thought it could be a walker but when I stepped outside the tent and walked around the camp, I didn't see or hear anything.

I went back inside the tent and Beth laid her head on my chest and we fell asleep.

BETH'S PERSPECTIVE

After breakfast Daryl and I were on the move once again, we then found a house and I helped him clear it out. There wasn't much food there but we still had some from the old house, we then rested for most of the day I found a piano in the den downstairs then decided to play and sing for a while as Daryl laid down on the couch.

I then turned to him and said, "I thought you hated my singing?" he smirked a little and said, "It ain't too bad." I then smiled and continued playing. Before I knew it Daryl was sleeping and I could hear him snoring. I just loved his snores they were just so peaceful and it made me feel good to know that he was resting.

I then stopped playing and slowly walked towards him, I got down on my knees and faced his sleeping self that lay on the couch. I then grabbed his hand and intertwined my fingers with it and whispered, "I'm falling in love with you Daryl Dixon." he then slowly stopped snoring and opened his eyes.

He turned to look at me and said, "What're you doin?" I didn't know exactly what I was doing but I answered, "I just wanted to be next to you."

He laughed quietly and stood up, sitting back into the couch, I joined him letting my back rest on the couch. He never let go off my hand, he just held it and started grabbing it tighter, getting my attention.

I looked at our hands and then at his eyes. Then he leaned into me and began to kiss me. I was then overwhelmed with his passion and began to let him caress my breasts as I began to unbutton his shirt.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked. "I do." I said nervously. "I am a virgin tho..." he then stopped for a little bit, "Are you sure bout it?" he asked again.

"Yes just...be careful" I said.

He then began to take off my pants and slowly put himself inside me. We continued to move in a rhythm as I could not keep quiet for he was very big and I was really tight. Once he finished he slowly began to kiss my neck as we caught our breaths, it was an absolutely amazing feeling. He was so sweet and careful yet very passionate.

DARYLS PERSPECTIVE

I made love to Beth for the first time today, it was different with her, she's something special. This girl was truly something special to me and I was fallin hard for her.

BETHS PERSPECTIVE

"I'm going out for a run" Daryl said as he began to get his crossbow ready.

"You are? Now?" it was mid-day, "Can I go with you?

"Na I think it'd be best if you'd stay. Ill be back before dark. Don't worry." He said as he pulled me towards him by the waist and kissed me.

I then thought ok, what am I supposed to do all day by myself? I began to walk around the house, looking for a journal and, something to write down with. My journal from before was running out of pages so I needed a new one. I began to look in a room and found a decent sized one that could fit in my pocket. I sat down on the bed in the master bedroom and began to write.

I decided to write everything that had happened since the prison and how things had changed between Daryl and I. I found that I was very exhausted and within a couple of minutes I fell asleep.

I woke up a couple hours later, the house was now dark and I could hear something downstairs. I immediately got up rubbed my eyes and began to walk outside the hallway. It wasn't until I heard a voice that I did not recognize downstairs that I paused and stood still.

"I saw her in here man, there was a guy with her and I saw him leave but she stayed," one of the voices said.

"I'll check up stairs, you keep looking down here." another voice said as he began running up the stairs. I froze for a couple seconds then walked to the hide in a closet.

Inside the closet I began to feel something moving around me and when I turned down to look at what it was, it was a rat and I couldn't help but squeal grabbing their attention.

"She's up here!" The guy upstairs screamed to the one downstairs. I could now here their footsteps on the second floor and I didn't know what to do because they would eventually look inside the closet and I had nowhere to run to and I could barely even see in the dark house.

"Where is she man, I swear I heard a squeal!'

Then all of a sudden a huge dark shadow figure opens the door and I couldn't help but scream and try to run. I didn't get far before he hit me and I blacked out.

I woke up as one of the guys was carrying me over his shoulder and I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt so dizzy and when I touched my head, I felt the blood. I was bleeding. Once I regained full conscious I began to scream and move as fast as I could trying to get him to let me go.

The more I screamed the more upset he became that he threw me on the floor! And my head hit a tree stump. He then started trying to grab me and I did what I could by pushing him away and kicking him as his other friend was trying too.

I thought I was pretty screwed until a swarm of Walkers began to head our way that they became frightened and fled. I didn't have much strength but I got up and I ran trying to hold myself together. I didn't want to run the direction the guys had gone so I went the opposite way, deeper into the woods.

I ran I dont know how far but I just kept running as I could continue hearing the roars of the walkers behind me, I was growing weaker by the second and was about to faint but I managed to get farther and before I knew it I tripped over a branch on the floor and passed out. I had no idea what had happened to me at this point, I just closed my eyes and didn't wake up.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - DARYLS POV- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I decided to go on a hunt, I wanted to clear my mind a bit and needed to sweep the area. I left Beth at the house, I'm sure she would be okay, I didn't think anything could happen to her as long as she stayed in the house. I walked a mile or two out before I came across this barn. I opened the barn doors and found that there was people's things in there.

Someone had been using the barn for shelter. I quickly turned back but before I could leave there were three men standing in front of me and began to circle me. "Can we help you?" the first man asked. I glared at them trying to keep my eyes on all three.

"Ya'll can't help me with nothing." I said.

"You was about to steal from us weren't you?!" the second man said as he came near me and was stopped by the 3rd man, "calm down, calm down fella. it'll be ok" he told them.

"I came across it, opened the barn, closed the door headed my way now." I said. Trying to convince them I wasn't going to cause them any danger.

"You're lying! If we hadn't caught you, you would have stolen our stuff!" The 2nd guy said. I knew they weren't going to believe me, I knew this was going to end badly.

What do you guys think about this chapter?

Question or comments?


	6. A New Friend

Daryl's POV

I knew I was in trouble from the moment they saw me there, "I think we need to teach him a little lesson don't we, Charlie?" The second guy told the first.

"I agree" he said and they both came towards me with the third holding back, they began to throw punches as I struggled to fight back.

One of them got me real good in the face and the other dropped me to the ground and began to kick my stomach. Fuck! I needed to get back up and kick their asses, I thought.

The third guy then said, "Alright that's enough, I think he's learned his lesson." he held his hand up. They stopped kicking me in the stomach and I was soon able to get back up, once I did I swung at the first guy in front of me, all I felt was a huge bang on the back side of my head and I was blacked out.

BETHS POV

I felt the sun shining on my face and I could hear the birds chirping around me. I looked around me and I was covered in mud and leaves, then I heard a growl and saw a walker, making its way towards me. I got up as fast as I could, knocking it down and burying a branch into its head.

I was exhausted but I had survived that night. I thought about Daryl right away and where he might be? Where was he the whole night, did he come looking for me, is he hurt? I decided to run back the direction I had come from, hoping to get some clue of where Daryl might be.

I was hurt, my head was hit and hard but the bleeding had finally stopped. A cut on my arm was still bleeding so I ripped part of my shirt and wrapped it as tight as I could. I continued walking. I had no sense of direction but I just went the way I thought I had come from. It wasn't until I ran into a road that I knew I was headed the wrong way.

I decided to follow the road maybe it could lead me back to the house. I walked for a couple miles, thirsty as ever. I needed water and I needed to rest. I stopped on the side of the road and leaned on a tree, I closed my eyes for just a moment and unwillingly fell asleep once again.

"Hey, hello there, can you hear me?" an unfamiliar voice called out. I slowly began to wake up and once I realized someone was there with me, I took a deep breath and got up as fast as I could.

"No don't worry! We won't hurt you!" a girl said. She was medium height, had short black hair looked like she was in her mid-20s. Along with her was another women and a little boy who were holding back from talking to me.

"My name is Olivia and this is my sister Rachael and her son Alex." I was still trying to catch my breath, as she talked. "Are you okay? It looks like you're bleeding?" I was then finally able to respond and said, "Yes I'm just, I lost my friend and I-I haven't been able to find him." I said.

"Where were you last?" she asked. I couldn't trust a complete stranger so I didn't answer, once she saw my hesitation she said, "You don't have to worry about us, we are alone, have been since the beginning we won't hurt you." she assured me.

I then got up and said, "I don't know I was at a house with my friend but I was attacked and I lost the house and haven't been able to find my way back, I don't know where it is or if he will even be back there." I said sadly.

Olivia then handed me a bottle of water and said, "Here take a drink. How long have you been alone?"

"Late evening yesterday" I said.

"We can help you find the house?" she offered.

I took the bottle of water from her and nodded in agreement.

Thoughts on what happened to Daryl?

Will they meet again?


	7. Whats The Point

DARYLS POV

I woke up a couple hours later, it was dark but the sun was now coming up. I was laying in the same place I had fought with those guys. I sat up and looked back at the barn, their stuff was gone.

I got up and thought BETH! She must have been worried since I hadn't gone back to the house! I brushed the dirt off of me and headed to back in the direction of the house.

BETH'S POV

I took a drink of water and let Olivia wrap my wound properly. "We are headed to Washington, there might be something there, you never know." Olivia said.

"I can't! I have to go back to the house, I have to find him!" I started freaking out.

"It's okay, Its okay, we understand. We can help, right Rachael?" Olivia asked and Rachel nodded.

"Where is the house?" she asked. "I think it was this way." I said and we began our journey.

DARYLS POV

Didn't take me long to get back to the house, I ran when I noticed the door was open. There were now walkers inside. Once I cleared them out, I saw that Beth's things were still there, but what made me worry was that there was blood on the floor.

What had happened, could Beth still be alive. I looked around and using my tracking skills I could see she had been taken away. There were blood stains on the floor and I could tell she had struggled.

Someone had to have taken Beth. I aint gona give up on looking for her, I was going to follow her tracks. They led out into the woods where she was brought to a tree and I could see more blood. After that I followed two sets of tracks. One led deeper into the forest and there were two others headed in a different direction. I followed the single tracks thinking they were Beth's.

But they led nowhere, the tracks had ended and I was back at ground zero, Beth was gone, I didn't even know what had happened to her she was just gone.

BETH'S POV

We followed the direction I thought the house was and after a couple hours we finally found it. I ran inside hoping to find Daryl but no one was there. The place was left just as I had left it when I was taken by those men. I immediately broke down, I felt so alone, I had lost Daryl and I had no idea what had happened to him.

I fell to my knees and cried, not caring about the girls and her son looking at me. I just felt like giving up, if Daryl wasn't around then what was my point of living. I was the most alone I had ever been and I couldn't find a reason to get up and keep living.

After a while I regained myself and sat on the couch. Olivia and Rachael were in the kitchen looking for food. Olivia then came up to me and said, "You can come with us, to Washington?" she said.

"We think there might be something there, maybe a refugee, maybe someone who can help us." I didn't say anything back. "We might just stay here for the night and keep moving tomorrow, but I just want you to know, we would like if you joined us." she said then got back up from the couch where I was sitting and joined Rachael and her son.

I didn't know what to do, I couldn't even think about what I wanted to do, I just wanted to be with Daryl.

That night I laid on that couch and thought about everything, I then decided that I would go with the girls what did I have to loose. I was alone now, Daryl was just gone.

Thoughts on this chapter?

Will they reunite? What's in Washington?


	8. Crossbows

Daryl's POV

That night I slept in the woods, I woke up at dawn to hunt something to eat and kept moving. I didn't even know where to go, without wanting to, my dream had come true, I had lost Beth.

I walked for a while until I entered the steep parts of the woods and could hear something, if not someone. I turned around pointed my crossbow and said, "Come out!"

Someone was watching me and I could sense it, if it was a Walker I could have heard it. "Come out!" I threatened.

Slowly someone came out behind a tree, it was a girl. She had long black hair tall, thin, and she had a crossbow too. She wore a black shirt and gray jeans with combat boots. She slowly came out as I pointed my crossbow at her.

"Why you following me?!" I asked.

She didn't respond right away, "Why are you following me?!" I asked again.

She then slowly let down her crossbow and said, "I wasn't, I came across you a while back, saw that you were alone so..."

"So what?!" I asked.

"So I needed to know what you were up to!" she screamed.

"Why, who are you with? What do you want?!" I asked her.

"I don't know you, who are you, who are you with?! You've been alone this whole time huh?" she asked. Little attitude this one had.

I let my crossbow down and said, "Alright then, why didn't you come out when you first saw me?" I asked.

"I didn't know who you were, or if you were with other people." she answered. "I thought you might have someone else with you, I needed to know what kind of person you were."

"I'm alone." I answered.

"Did you lose your group?" she asked.

"Yeah" I said.

"How long have you been alone?" she walked closer.

"A while, what about you, you have a group?"

"I do, not far from here too." I didn't say anything and neither did she.

She then pointed her crossbow at me and shot it, hitting a walker coming up behind me. She was a good shot. "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."

"I aint afraid of nothin" I said.

"What's your name?" she asked,

"Daryl,"

"My name's Daniela"

"Do you want to come back with me? There are others waiting for me, not far from here." she asked, I thought about how I had nothing to lose so why not, so I nodded and she moved her head for me to follow her.

DANIELA'S POV

I woke up at dawn this morning to go on a run with the others. Jason didn't want me to go after what happened last time, he always was an overly protective brother but, what could you do? The world was not the same anymore, we had to survive and surviving was risky and things happen, people die, and people get hurt, that was life now.

We were headed to a pharmacy nearby, one of our youngest was sick and we needed to find her medicine as soon as possible. It was Jason, Richard, Phillip, and Trinity, who had all came on the run. Paty and Jerry stayed back with the kids and the others.

We didn't find much at the pharmacy but took everything we did find. After that Jason said to split up to see what else we came upon. I of course paired up with Trinity and Phillip, while my brother went with Richard. The first chance I had I split from them saying, "I'll meet you back here in a bit, gona go shoot me a rabbit for Emily back at the camp."

I took advantage that Phillip and Trinity didn't care that I went my own way so I went deep into the woods. I like being alone.

I began to follow tracks on the ground and came across a man, he didn't see me right away. I was on top of a steep hill and he walked by the bottom. He had a crossbow like mine, bigger but it was nice. He seemed to be alone but I thought I could follow him.

I was quiet and I kept my distance, he didn't see me until I stepped over a tree branch and he called out for me to come out.

I let him know I was no harm to him, not that I could think I could take him but, he did look strong. He looked like a tracker just like me.

He was careful making sure that I was not going to harm him. He had a black eye and looked like he had gone through a tough time, I could see he really was alone and that he could be great contribution to our group. I didn't know if inviting him to come back with me was a good idea but I did. And he agreed.

Thoughts on the new character? What do you guys think will happen here? Predictions?


	9. The Group

Daniela's POV

We walked side by side and I couldn't help but stare at him without making it obvious. I know this is the apocalypse and that survival was the only thing that mattered right now but, he was HOT! He was beyond hot, and I couldn't help but stare.

His arms were so built, I mean come on, he even had a crossbow! My dad had taught me how to use one when I graduated college, then he bought me the one I now have which I cherish more than anything. His was bigger and different but I found it all so attractive.

It wasn't far that we walked to meet back up with Phillip and Trinity. They were talking to each other when Daryl and I arrived.

"Hey guys?" I said, getting their attention.

They turned to us, "This is Daryl.." I didn't know what their response would be so I didn't know what else to say. "Daryl huh? I'm Phillip and this is Trinity." Phillip finally said.

Daryl nodded and I said, "Let's go meet up with Jason".

A couple minutes later we found Jason and Richard. They were just walking out of a building when we surprised them around the corner, "Daniela! Ive told you thousands of times not to come up to me like that!" he said frustrated with me.

Then he looked up and saw Daryl, "Who's this?" he puffed his chest. "Jason, I was out in the woods..." "You were out in the woods?! Alone?!" he yelled at me.

"Stop it, I was out hunting, and I came upon Daryl, he's alone, he lost his group, thought we could use his help." Jason glared at me with an evil look, "How'd you lose your group?" he asked Daryl,

"We were attacked." He answered.

"Where were you?" Jason asked.

"At a prison." Daryl answered.

"Hmm ok, guess we'll have to see how things go with you. This is Richard and I'm Jason, you sure you don't have anyone else with you?" he asked.

"No, I don't" he answered. "Ok then well here's the thing, I'm in charge in this group, everything must go through me, if you don't like it, then you can leave. But I'm not having anybody ruin what we have."

"I aint ruining nothing!"

"Alright then." Jason said. Then we all walked back to the camp.

Daryl's POV

I didn't know what to expect from this new group, I didn't know if they would accept me but I followed the girl as she not so conspicuously watched me. We met up with her group and I met her older brother, tough guy, overprotective who set his rules straight and forward. I could respect that.

I followed them back to their camp. It wasn't far, they were on foot.

We arrived at two huge metal doors, there were snipers at the top of each end. When they saw the leader, someone came and opened the doors and let us inside.

There were walls here, big walls, surrounding a mansion in the middle of the land. I looked at the girl and she began to speak, "My brother and I pretty much established the camp and made it what it has become today. When everything happened my brother and I found refuge in a orphanage which eventually got overrun. After that happened we fled along with 9 of the surviving orphans and we found this mansion in the middle of the woods, on 16 acres of land to be exact. After a couple weeks and after recruiting several others we were able to build walls, our walls aren't the best and they don't surround the whole area, only about 8 acres but its good enough." she said.

"Do you have guards on the walls?" I asked.

"Day and night" we haven't suffered a breakthrough in over 4 months now. We have been very fortunate really but, we also have a lot of mouths to feed." She said as she signaled for me to follow her through the house as the others went around.

"Here follow me, I want to show you something." she said and so I followed her.

She took me through the house it was massive and dark but there were plenty of supplies. I followed her up the stairs and into a centered hall that led out the back door to a balcony that oversaw a huge backyard. The sun was now about to set and it shined bright in our eyes. When I looked over the balcony, I saw that there were kids, there were tons of kids, all working on something out in the backyard. These were just children...

"Hey kids!" she yelled out. Then they all came running up the stairs to greet her. She came down to her knees and greeted them with hugs and kisses. "You're back Daniela!" they all said. These were only kids most of them anyway and their survival depended on the adults.

Daniela's POV

I decided to show Daryl what we were all about, what our group had become and what we fought for. It was the kids who we had saved from the orphanage that I cared for. Jason and I had two other siblings they're twins a girl and a boy only 8 years old, Katherine and Kody. Our parents died in a car crash when the twins were only babies, Jason was 18 and I was 15, we took care of them their whole life's.

We cared a lot for the survivors of the orphanage the kids range from 6-15 years old. We had been training them since the beginning, to fight, we weren't always guaranteed safety and we couldn't always be here for all of them. So we trained them, we taught them how to hunt, how to shoot, how to use a knife. There are only 16 adults in the group, we've been wanting to grow for a long time now, keep our group strong with more people. But not everyone was willing to help the children.

"Hey guys! I want you all to meet Daryl!" I said. They all greeted him kindly. Daryl showed no expression on his face, I didn't know what he was thinking, I just knew he was surprised.

"Alright guys start setting up for the night okay, make sure you guys know your shifts, those of you who have them anyways." I said then they all went their own way. Katherine and Kody stayed with me, "Daryl, this is Katherine and Kody my twin brother and sister. Daryl nodded and Kody and Katherine shyly said hi.

"You must be hungry" I told Daryl, "We're about to eat dinner, come join us."

For dinner we all met at the center of the mansion, there was a fire place where we all sat near to and ate as a family. Daryl joined us that night, didn't really say much, he wasn't a say much guy I could tell. After dinner I showed him where he could sleep, the mansion had 23 bedrooms in it, as for the kids we had all the boys in one hallway and the girls in another. The adults all had their own rooms.

I was on watch that night so I told Daryl, "Sleep good, Ill see you tomorrow" I said. Then left the room.

I stood guard that night at the doors.

The moon was shining bright that night and I couldn't help but stare up at it and reminisce on what it use to be back then, how my life was, how everyone's life had completely changed. Then I heard a sound and I turned back only to see that it was Daryl, "Can I join you?" he asked.

"You should be getting some rest," I said.

"Na, I'm good." he answered. As he sat next to me resting his crossbow on his lap. "What kind of cross bow is that?" he asked me. "Its a ******360, my dad bought it for me for when I graduated college, he wasn't able to give it to me himself but It meant a lot when my grandparents finally gave it to me."

My dad had bought the crossbow for me when he first began teaching me how to shoot at the age of 13, then he bought me this crossbow but didn't want to give it to me until he thought I was ready. When he passed my grandparents didn't know about it so when I graduated college I decided to buy myself one and that's when they realized that the cross bow dad had left behind was meant for me.

"I like it, its nice" Daryl said.

"Thanks, I like yours too." I said.

"Can I ask you a question?" I said. "mmhmh" he answered.

"How long have you been alone?" I was curious because he looked like he was looking for something the whole time I followed him, not something to hunt, more like someone.

"Not long, I was with a girl, a survivor from my group but, I went out for a hunt, when I came back, she was gone. I tried looking for her but couldn't track something that wasn't there." he answered.

I nodded and then understood that he hasn't been alone the whole time. That he was just looking for someone he had lost.


	10. Strangers

Beth's POV

The next morning we packed anything we found that we could eat, and began to walk. After a couple miles we found a car and were able to start it up. We drove as far as we could before it got dark and slept in the car that night.

I couldn't even sleep, I couldn't stop thinking of Daryl, where was he, what had happened to him? Did he get hurt? did he even go back to the house at all? All these thoughts raced through my head and before I knew it, it was daytime again.

We kept driving most of the morning but stopped at a nearby town to see what we could find. Rachel and her son stayed by the car while Olivia and I went into the small town. Olivia had a handgun and a knife, all I had was knife.

We first went into a pharmacy, and took everything we could use. Then we kept moving and found a mechanic shop, "We may need supplies from there" Olivia said.

So we headed over to that store. Olivia and I parted ways when we entered, I began to look for anything that we could use as she was over on the other end.

Then the bell that signaled someone coming into the store rang. I immediately knew someone had entered the store, I crouched over and slowly walked down one of the aisles heading towards the entrance, it wasn't a walker, it was two men.

I immediately was frightened, I couldn't trust any other man after what had happened back at the house, especially since Olivia and I were alone. I looked over to the other end of the store and Olivia was also crouched down and when she saw me, she put her finger to her mouth signaling me to be quiet. I nodded that I got her message and hid. The men were built and didn't look older than there mid-20s.

They walked around the store as Olivia and I stayed hidden. "Hey Jason!" one of them called for the other. "What Richard?" he answered.

"What do you think of the new guy?"

"Uhhh, doesn't look like he will do much harm plus, we need the man power, right?"

"Yeah you're right, he sure needs a haircut though, dudes hairs getting shoulder length!" they both laughed.

I looked over to see if I could spy Olivia, make sure she was still ok, when she saw me she pointed to the door and signaled that we would run out. I didn't think that was the best idea but we once she got up I did too and we ran through that door like no other.

We obviously caught the guys attention so they ran after us, "Hey! Hey! We won't hurt you guys!" they called out but we didn't stop running. Olivia and I didn't even look back we just kept running. They had stopped chasing us shortly after we turned the next block but we could still here them, "Hey guys! We won't hurt you!"

Didn't know if they were really good people or if they were just lying to get us to go to them but, Olivia and I weren't going to find out.


	11. The Wall

JASON's POV

Richard and I needed to replace a band in one of our cars so we headed into the small town nearby to get supplies from the mechanic shop.  
Once inside we knew exactly where to find what we needed so we headed to that aisle.  
Richard and I talked about the new guy and what we thought about him but before we could get into the conversation we heard someone book it out the door. It happened so fast that Richard and I ran after the two girls who had ran out of the store.  
They were probably scared that we would hurt them because they never looked back.  
"Hey! Hey!" We called them but they didn't stop. We could have helped them if they needed it but they didn't seem to want it.

BETHS POV

Olivia and I ran back to the car, when Rachael saw us she started the car, "what happened?! Is everything ok?!" She asked.  
"Yes! We just ran into others, at one of the shops!" Olivia answered.  
"What happened, did you talk to them?!" Rachael asked.  
"No we just ran, they followed us for a little bit and called for us to stop but we weren't going to risk it!" Olivia said.

We decided to drive a mile or two and set up camp there for the night. I helped Rachael and Olivia set up a tent and brought out the blankets, we ate whatever we food we had left and went to sleep.

The next morning Olivia and I decided to go hunting, we needed food so went deeper into the woods and left Rachael with her son behind. We didn't get far without running into some walkers, I killed one Olivia killed the other. We began to run as we saw more headed our way, we didn't get far until we ran into a wall. The wall was huge! Could have bee 40 ft tall!  
Metal material and it went across for miles! I didn't know what it was or what it meant Olivia and I just continued running down one of the ends but it went on and on. Almost felt like an eternity that we were running but we never reached an end. We both got tired before we reached the end so we began to walk.  
Catching our breaths I said, "what is it?! What do you think it could be?!"  
"I don't know! Do you think it could be a safe place?! Somewhere where we can get help?" She said excitedly!  
"It can be dangerous tho, we should find the entrance and scope it out first." I suggested.  
"Ok let's go!" She said.

Even tho I knew it wasn't a good idea, I began to get excited and I could tell Olivia did too. We both started running as fast as we could trying to reach the end of the wall.  
Once we did it was only a corner and the wall ran down the other way, already exhausted Olivia said, "Should we keep following it?"  
"Do you want to?" I asked.  
I think our adrenaline was at it's max cause we were both thinking this could be it, this could be what we were looking for so we kept running.

Daryl's POV

I've been with this new group for a couple days now, they have a interesting way of doing things, they're cautious but they maintain a good system. The children in this group are different too, they are survivors they're not just living. The last couple of days I've been helping Daniela, she's in charge of training the kids, and so I've working with her.

They all learn pretty fast and seeing as how the land is pretty big, they are able to practice "out in the field". Daniela organizes these scenarios for them, to test their skills. The youngest in the group is 6, its a little boy named Jeremy, he's tough but he broke down when he didn't know what to do as he became surrounded by walkers who are played by the others kids to help train. I could see these kids growing and becoming something in this apocalypse, I liked helping em.

"Hey Daryl!" Daniela called out for me as I sat on watch, at the gate.

"Yeah!" I called down, "You want to go on a run with me today?" She asked.

"Yeah" I said, then met her down at the door as Jeremy came running towards us.

"Can I go too?" He asked. "No! Get back there!" Daniela screamed at him. Jeremy didnt bother asking again he just put his head down and started walking away then she called him back, "Wait Jeremy, come here."  
She got on one knee to be at his eye level, grabbed his shoulders and said, "You cant come but I promise I'll find something good for you and bring it back, sound good?" I asked.

Jeremy nodded and she kissed his forehead and we left.

Daniela and I headed into a neighborhood of houses and began to scout the area, we looked for anything and everything. We mostly brought things back for the kids too, magazines, board games, clothes. Anything for the kids.

"How are you liking the Phoenix?" Daniela asked me. "Huh?" I asked.

"Hah the Phoenix, that's what we call home, we call it the Phoenix." She smiled big.

"Oh, I like it. I like helping the kids." I said,

"Good, Im glad you do, you've been a great help, thank you!" She said.

We were on the second floor of a house in a children's room picking things out. When we heard someone talking outside, I ran to one of the windows and I saw that it was the guys from the barn, shit!

Daniela and I tried getting out before they came inside the house but it was too late, they were already inside the house and one was headed upstairs.

"We have to hide," I said. "Why?" She asked.

"You see this black eye? They gave it to me. Motherfuckers will try and finish the job and I don't want them to hurt you." I said.

So she hid under the small bed and I hid in the closet as we heard one of the guys go room for room.


	12. Tied Up

Daniela's POV

I couldn't hear anything but the thumping of my heart beat. I couldn't hold my breath to keep quiet as the man entered and I watched his feet move from one end of the room to the other.  
Once he finished searching the room, I waited for Daryl to walk out of the closet to get out from the bottom of the bed.  
When he did he quietly walked over to the door to close it.  
"We gotta get out of here" he said.  
"What do you suggest?" I asked.  
"Let's go down there and see if we can take em out!" He answered.  
"What? Are you serious?" I said.  
Then Daryl opened the door and nodded for me to follow him. I rolled my eyes and put up my crossbow.  
We began to search for the guy that had come up on the second floor, we found him sleeping in one of the bedrooms.  
Daryl walked up to him and padded his shoulder for him to wake up. Once he did Daryl knocked him out with his crossbow. Now he really was asleep.

We began to slowly walk down the stairs and could hear two guys in the living room. The back door of the kitchen was wide open so I signaled Daryl for us to go out that way.  
We quickly ran outside but were surprised with 2 other guys who knocked both of us out hitting us in the head with rifles.

I woke up a couple hours later. I was tied to a chair and when I was fully conscious I looked around me and Daryl was next to me tied up too. I screened the room for my crossbow they had both across the room.  
There were two men one of them was on a chair his nose was broken, the guy Daryl had knocked out.  
The other guy was smoking a cigarette had a bandana on his head. When he saw I was awake he said, "Oh! Well will you look at that sleeping beauty is finally awake!"  
Daryl was all beaten up, I guess they had been beating him while I was passed out.  
The guy came closer to me and grabbed my chin, "Aren't you a pretty one?" He said.  
I moved my chin so he wouldnt touch me.  
"Girlfriend?" He asked Daryl.  
"Na too pretty for you." He answered himself.  
"What do you want?!" I asked.  
"Well your boyfriend here can't seem to get away from us, we let him go once, I don't think we can let him go again, look at my brother over there, he has a broken nose now!" And he punched Daryl in the face.  
I didn't know what to do or how to get out of this, Daryl was beat up pretty bad and I could tell these guys weren't going to stop beating him anytime soon.  
The more they beat him the more he started dosing off, I couldn't just stand here and watch this happen! I had to do something.  
When I saw that Daryl was completely knocked out, the guy who was beating him up luckily walked into the other room and the one with the broken nose stayed.  
So I got up and tried breaking the chair by running into the wall that right away caught all the guys attention, there were 5 total in the house. They all came towards me as I was struggling to get loose from the broken chair.  
Two guys got a hold of me as I kicked one in the face and the other in the balls. It made them back off for just a couple seconds as I was able to finally get completely loose.  
I ran to the kitchen and threw anything and everything at the guys as I tried to make it to the crossbows.  
When I finally reached it I pulled the arrow back and aimed at one of the guys.  
"Put it down!" One of them yelled at me as he now pointed a gun at me.  
Well shit! I thought, now we were really screwed! I threw Daryl's crossbow over my shoulder and slowly made my way towards him, keeping my eyes on the guy pointing the gun at me.  
"Let us go!" I screamed.  
"Oh honey, you got yourself into trouble now!" Me said.  
I didn't know what my plan was, I didn't have a plan, if I shoot him there's still four others, there is no way I could get out of this. 5 against 2, well 1 cause Daryl was passed out.  
I grabbed Daryl by the shoulder and shook him trying to wake him up.  
"Daryl! Daryl!" But he didn't respond.

We then heard growls outside and there were now walkers banging on the door, trying to get in. The guys looked over and smiled at each other, "WellI guess we'll just let them take care of you and your friend there!" The guy said as he opened the door and they all booked it out the back door.  
6 walkers came in and 3 followed the guys out the door and 3 came towards Daryl and I!  
One was gimpy and tripped over the coach the other two I pushed one knocking the other, I shot a crossbow through both their heads, then went over to the gimpy one and shot him too. I closed both doors attempting to secure the area.

I looked through the windows and didnt see any signs of the bad guys. I ran back to Daryl who was still passed out, I untied him using my pocket knife and struggling, carried him to the couch. I shook him trying to wake him up but he would not. I felt his neck trying to felt a heartbeat and I found one. I took a deep breath in relief.

I leaned back on the couch as I sat on the floor and took a couple moments to catch my breath. It was now dawn, they had us tied up for more than half a day and throughout the whole night.

I had to wait for Daryl to wake up to head back, I couldn't carry him the whole way without getting either, if not both of us killed. I was just happy we were both okay. So I sat there on the floor and put my head down feeling grateful that we had made it, and waited for Daryl to wake up.


	13. Survival

Beths POV

Olivia and I ran as our adrenaline increased. We ran careless down that wall, smiling and laughing like children. We were happy even though we had no idea what we were headed to, it could just be a wall. I thought

There could be nothing on the other side, we could have led ourselves to believe there was something there that isn't but, we didn't care right, we just kept running.

After a while Olivia and I finally stopped running and began to walk to catch our breaths, we were reaching a different part of the wall now,  
"Could that be it, could that be the door?" Olivia asked.

"Maybe, let's go this way." I said as we walked into the woods, "We have to check it out first."

Olivia and I found a steep hill nearby where we could lay flat on the ground and have a good view of the doors and not be seen. We were able to see if anyone came in or out. We waited there anxiously as our stomachs began to growl, we hadn't eaten all day and had been running for most of it.

A walker came up behind us, it was quiet so we didn't notice till it grabbed Olivia by the leg as she was lying flat on her stomach. She screamed and I tried helping her. The walker had a good grip, I tried pulling it off of her but its skin was just falling off.

I then grabbed my knife and stabbed its head. Olivia looked up at me breathing heavily and said, "Thank you!"

"You're welcome" I said catching my breath as well.

Then all of sudden these two guys with rifles come running to us, "Hey!" they called out. We were then frozen, "You guys okay?" they asked.

"Yeah, we're okay." I answered.

"What are you guys doing?" one of them asked.

"We were looking for something to eat." Olivia answered.

"Who are you with?" they asked.

"Are you guys from behind that wall?" Olivia asked.

"Who are you with?" the guy asked again.

"We're alone, we have my sister and my nephew, but other than that, it's just us." Olivia answered.

"How long have you been alone?" he asked.

"Since the beginning" Olivia answered.

After a couple minutes of interrogating us, they told us they lived on the other side of the walls and that we could stay as long as we contributed and met the leaders. "Can we go get my sister?" Olivia asked.

"We'll go with you" the guy answered.

We all walked back to the car together, they told us their names were Phillip and Richard and that they had been living behind the wall for a while now. They were big guys, who made us feel a bit intimidated but we needed help. We were hungry and had not had any luck finding anything.

When we reached the car and Rachael saw us with the guys, she looked scared. "It's okay Rachael, we found help, and they're going to take us back with them." Rachael didn't say anything.

"Grab your stuff." Olivia said.

We all headed back with the guys. They talked to us a little bit more about their group and told us that we would be safe and they hardly took in people because of the way things were now a days.

When we arrived, we all looked up at these gigantic doors as they slowly began to open. We walked inside and we saw more people.

There were men and women and a lot of kids.

The guys walked in front of us and we followed him to another guy, they told him, "We found them right outside the walls, they're alone and have been alone. They can help us." One guy said to the other.

He then walked towards me, "Hi, my names Jason." he said and shook hands as we introduced ourselves. "We call our camp the Phoenix, we've been here for a while now and we keep our walls monitored at all times. We have 11 of children and plant our own food as well as going out on supply runs. You are welcome to stay if you wish, this is Alexandria, and she will show you around." He said introducing us to an older female.

Alexandria took us around the area, it was a large piece of land and in the center of it was a huge mansion where they all lived. It was their sanctuary where they survived along with 11 orphans, Alexandria shared.

They helped train the children in combat while they planted their own seeds and maintained the land. "We had not taken people in for a while now, but I'm glad we've started to again." Alexandria said. "Just took in a guy the other day too" she mentioned.

"Here I'll show you where you can sleep" she showed us to a room in the house, these rooms were ginormous, 15 people could fit in just one room.

The room had two beds and a couch, "you can all stay here if you'd like, if not I can show you to another room as well." she said. "This should be fine thank you." Rachael answered.

"Okay ladies, I will let you settle in. Please come down in a couple minutes, I'm sure you must be starving, we're getting ready for dinner." and she walked out.

Rachael and Olivia looked at each other like they meant to say something but were just saying it through their looks. I didn't know what it could be, but I sat on the couch and rested for a couple minutes before we went downstairs.

We joined the group next to a fire place in the center of the house and ate dinner with all the residents and children.

Rachael and Olivia stayed quiet and kept to themselves, didn't seem interested in interacting with the others. "Is everything okay?" I asked Olivia. She nodded in agreement and I let it go.

"Hey where's Daniela?!" Jason yelled at Phillip.

"Uuuuhh she went out on a hunt this morning?" Phillip answered,

"With who?!" Jason yelled.

"With that new guy?!" he answered.

"What, you said they left this morning?!" Jason stood up.

"Yeah man, I thought they'd be back by now,"

"What the hell, you couldn't have told me earlier?!" Jason was now grabbing his gun and supplies.

"I'm sorry man, I thought you knew?" Phillip said, grabbing his stuff too.

Jason looked over at Phillip and Richard, "You guys coming?" Jason called for them. The guys stood up and got their stuff ready.

"Tristin, can you handle it here?" Jason looked at one of the females. "Yeah we got it, be safe." she answered.

"Feel at home ladies, I gotta go find my crazy ass sister!" he said to us and began to walk out with the others.

When we finished dinner some of the kids were assigned shifts for the night where they stood watch on the walls, the others all went to bed.

The girls and I headed back to our room. Olivia and Rachael were acting really weird and I couldn't help sense that they were hiding something from me. As we began to get ready for bed I asked, "Is everything ok?"

Olivia took a deep breath and sat down on the bed, I sat next to her, waiting for her to tell me what's wrong.

"Okay Beth, there's something we haven't told you...Rachael's husband was in the military and before it all went bad he was sent to Washington to help secure a safe place...he was supposed to send for us but things went bad and fast. Rachael thinks that he still might be there and she wants to go to Washington..." Olivia looked at me biting her lip. Waiting for a response.

I didn't know what to say...I didn't know if that would be a good idea, we had just found a safe haven. Why did they want to leave?

"You can stay if you want to Beth, this really is a great place. We just don't want you to feel like we are leaving you but, Rachael wants to see her husband and I'll follow her wherever she goes."

Well this was a complete shock to me, what should I do?

Should I stay here, it really was a good place, these people took care of children! How doesn't it get better than that? But, these girls had really grown on me, Olivia was a good friend and she was kind, I couldn't just let them keep moving on. I didn't know what to do.

"It's okay, you don't have to make up your mind now, let's just get some rest." Olivia said.

I went to bed that night contemplating on what I should do. Should I stay here and live a life, or should I go out there and fight to survive?


	14. If I Stay

Beth's POV

I woke up the next morning and I felt safe, I truly felt safe and I felt like things were finally ok.

Olivia, Rachael, her son, and I went downstairs to meet with the others. They offered us breakfast then Rachael walked away with Alexandria, I guess she was letting her know she wasnt staying. Olivia and I went outside, we watched as some of the kids along with the adults planted and worked on the land. We enjoyed the fresh air, letting it blow through our hair.

"Are you coming with us?" Olivia asked. I didnt know the answer to her question. I wanted to stay but I wanted them to stay too. "When are you leaving?" I asked.

"Rachael wants to leave today." Olivia answered.

"Are you serious?! That soon!?" I said surprised. "Yeah, I know right? Thats why she's talking to Alexandria, she wants to see if they can help us out with supplies before we leave."

Wow I cant believe they didnt want to stay here, not even for a couple days.

"Thats really soon, she wants to travel at night?" I asked.

"Guess so, not the best idea but she just wants to be on the road as soon as possible." Olivia answered.

I decided to sit on the grass and breath in the fresh air for a little bit. I wanted to feel safe and comfortable even if it was just for a few seconds. Olivia joined me and we sat there for a couple minutes until I broke the silence.

"I'll go with you guys!"

"Really?!" Olivia said really excited. "Yeah! I have to, you cant just leave me here!" I said and Olivia reached over to give me a huge hug.

I think I had made the right decision. I mean what did I have to lose, maybe there was more of a chance for me to run into Daryl if I were out there than in here, or so I thought.

Daniela's POV

I guess I had dosed off on the floor cause I woke up a couple hours later when the sun was shinning bright through the windows. I felt so sore my body ached and my head hurt like hell. I looked over to Daryl and moved him, he was still out. I could barely help myself up without using the couch for help.

It wasnt even 5 minutes that I was awake when I heard voices outside the door. I thought, they're back! Are you serious? Can we catch a break?!

I grabbed Daryls crossbow and threw it over my shoulder, and aimed mine at the door for when they came in. I was just about to shoot when Jason opened the door!

"Daniela!" he yelled. "Omg Jason!" I said. And I ran to him and hugged him. Boy was I happy to see him! I felt comfort in his arms it was the best feeling ever.

"What happened?!" he looked at me all beat up. "We just ran into these guys nearly beat Daryl to death, I've been waiting for him to wake up!" I said.

Jason walked over to Daryl and saw how beat he was. "We'll carry him, can you walk?!" he asked me.

"Yeah, Im okay, just bruised." I said.

Then Jason and Phillip helped carry Daryl. It wasn't a far walk but it took us a while to get back, we kept running into walkers and having to fight them off then traveled slowly carrying Daryl.

When we got back to the Phoenix, we called for our nurse to come check Daryl out. The guys carried him to the closest room they could find which was mine and threw him on the bed.

On my way into the house, Katherine and Kody came running towards me, "Daniela, you're okay!" They hugged me. "Yes Im fine, I just need sleep!" I said. Exhausted I walked over to Alexandria and noticed she was talking to someone I hadnt met before.

"Hi Alexandria." I said. "Hey Daniela, this is Rachael, Phillip and Richard brought them to the camp yesterday."

"Hi Rachael, Im Daniela." I said shaking her hand. "Hi Daniela." she answered.

"So how do you like here? Do you plan to stay?" I asked,

"Um well thats what I was actually talking to Alexandria about, we are extremely grateful for all of your help but my sister and I are actually leaving. My husband might be in Washington so I plan to go there." she said.

"Okay, uh well please if you wish to stay you are more than welcome too, we can certaintly use the help but if you wish to leave thats your choice, I hope you find what you're looking for. Who else is with you?" I asked.

"Well my son, whos out there with the other children and my sister Rachael and a friend Beth." Rachael walked out to the backyard and called for her family to come.

Her son came running and two girls followed. One was a brunette with long hair, the other was blonde and had a high pony tail, and wore cowboy boots.

They came up to me and introduced themselves as Olivia and Beth.

"Ladies, I was just telling Rachael, that you are more than welcome to stay if you wish."

Beth looked at Olivia and smiled, "Thank you so much but we have Rachaels husband to fin..." she stopped talking and her mouth dropped. "Is this crossbow yours?!" she asked grabbing my crossbow that I had hanging over my shoulder.

Jason had already taken Daryls with him when he took him upstairs. "Umm yeah, its mine why?"

She then looked disapointed. "Oh- I thought it was someones I knew, but its different. Nevermind sorry." she said shyly. I smiled at her and thought she was weird for a second but I needed to get cleaned up so I needed to leave quickly.

"Well ladies, I hope you guys the best!" I said attempting to walk away.

"Wait Daniela!" Alexandria called out. "Rachael was wondering if we could help out with supplies or not?" I looked at them and thought sure why not?

"Yeah I mean do you ladies need a car too?" I asked. "No we have a car, we were just wondering if we can get a little food and water?" Rachael asked. "Sure! I'll ask one of the guys to help you out with that!" I said and wanted to run upstairs to clean up.

"You look pretty beat up, is everything okay?" Beth asked. "Yeah a friend and I guy attacked on a run, he's passed out right now, we had to carry him back. I'm gona check on him right now." I answered.

"Oh well I hope your friend gets better!" Beth said. "Yeah me too! Thanks!" and I booked it up stairs.

I went into the room and saw that Daryl was still passed out, he was really warm too. The nurse had said he was fine but he felt too warm. I grabbed a towel and wet it to put on his forhead.

Before I knew it I passed out on the bed too, I was just so exhausted.

Beths POV

Daniela, the girl leader was kind enough to give us supplies, they even invited us to stay for lunch before we headed out.

They gave us food and water for a couple days and even helped us out with some gas. I was sad that we werent staying but I was happy to be with my new friends. This was going to be a journey and it was going to be worth it. I missed Daryl tho, I thought about him a lot especially when I saw Daniela's crossbow, I right away thought he might be here too! Or maybe came through here? I thought about asking the people here if they had seen him around but I never got the chance to.

I still had hope honestly, I still had hope that I would run into him because I knew that he was a fighter and that he would survive. Daryl was out there I knew he was, he was alive and I just needed to find him.


	15. Sunset

Daniela's POV

When I woke up Daryl was still passed out. I went downstairs and the girls were getting ready to leave. We walked the girls back to their car. They were all really nice, I wish they'd stay, they could have really help contribute to our group. Cant believe they had survived this long and alone.

"Thank you for all your help" Olivia said. "You're welcome, if you decide to comeback you know where we are." I said.

"Thank you" Beth said and they went into the car and drove off.

I honestly didnt think they would find anything out in Washington, the world had really gone to shit. There was no way she would be able to find her husband. No way but Im glad she had hope, cause thats all there was really left in this world.

Jason, Phillip, Richard, Charlie, and I all walked back to the camp. I was tired so I asked Jason for a piggy back ride, "Hop on sis!" he said. He then cruntched over for me to jump on his back. He gave me a piggy back ride back to the camp.

When we arrived, I checked on Daryl. He was still laying on my bed so I walked over to him and shook him, "Daryl, Daryl! Wake up." he shortly began to wake up.

He took a deep breath and stood up. "What the hell!" he said.

"Are you okay, how do you feel?" I asked.

"Where am I?" he looked around. "You're in my room, we carried you all the way back and my room was the closest so my brother dropped you off here."

"What happened?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and sat down to tell Daryl everything he had missed from how I took on 5 guys and 3 walkers to having the guys carry him back to the camp.

"Oh! And there were these girls that came too! They stayed for the night but just left. I guess they were headed to Washington to find one of their husbands, "I said.

"Wow thats crazy" Daryl said.

"Yeah it was quite crazy but we are alive and thats always a good thing." I said. As I got up and walked towards the door. "You should come get something to eat!" I offered.

He then got up, still sore from all the beating and followed me downstairs.

This mansion had its own water system so we had running water in the house, after Daryl and I ate I offered him to get his clothes washed and to take a shower. He agreed.

Daryl was a good man and he had good intentions. He was a survivor.

Daryl's POV

I cant believe I slept for that long. I felt like shit afterwards, Daniela filled me in on everything I missed then we had lunch, god I felt like I hadnt eaten for days!

They had water here so I was offered a chance to shower and have my clothes washed.

They even had warm water, it felt great to finally have showered.

After my shower I walked out of the bathroom that was my personal to the bedroom I was staying at. I didnt have a towel and I forgot to ask for one so I walked freely inside the room until Daniela accidently walked in carrying my clothes, "I have youuuurrrr" She closed the door. Uh-oh I thought.

I had my back facing the door but when I heard her I turned around and she saw me! All of me! That was just really awkward. I felt a bit embarassed but probably not as much as she did.

I grabbed my clean clothes she handed me and quickly got dressed. I thought I should probably go talk to her. So I went out to look for her.

It took me a while seeing as how the land was so big, there was so many places she could be. I saw Katherine and Kody playing outside and so I asked them, "Hey you guys seen your sister?" they both pointed to the wall.

She was sitting on the edge of the wall at one of the watch posts. I walked over to her, her back towards me. I started to climb the ladder and when she turned back to see who it was and saw it was me she put up her hand and looked away, "Daryl, dont!" she said.

I stopped, "What?"

"Stop, dont come any further, I am so embarassed right now, I cant look at you!" she said now laughing. I knew it was okay so I kept climbing the ladder and sat next to her. She covered her face with both her hands and I could tell she was completely blushed.

"Stop!" I said, "It wasnt that big a deal!"

"It totally was! I cant even!" She said as she laughed. I thought it was funny as hell watching her blush and thought it would be even funnier to tease her so I and said, "Oh come on!" and she shoved me away still not looking at me, covering her face with one of her hands.

Then we both just laughed about it for a couple minutes till I said, "Come on lets try this, look at me real quick!" I said. She turned to look at me and I said, "See was that so hard?!" I said. Then we both just laughed about it for a couple minutes.

The sun was now setting so we sat there for a while just staring out beyond the wall.

"Thank you for your help by the way, I would have left my ass behind!" I said.

"No problem Daryl, we never leave our own behind." she answered staring at me and smiling.

I sort of smiled back, just thought it was kind of awkward.

After a couple minutes we were called to the house it was time for dinner "as a family" they called it.


	16. Our Paths

Daniela's POV

I felt really embarrassed being around Daryl. I should have knocked first, I didn't think he would be walking around like that but, he didn't seem to mind so I needed to stop making it such a big deal.

Daryl and I got down from the wall to go have dinner. Jeremy came up to me and said, "I'm glad you're okay Daniela." and hugged me. I kissed him on the forehead and went to grab my bag, I had found a dinosaur book for him with tons of pictures. When I handed it to him, his eyes lit up, I couldn't help but feel warm inside.

These were the moments I lived for, seeing the kids happy made me happy. Jeremy thanked me again and gave me a hug wrapping his arms around my neck. I picked him up and said, "You're welcome Jeremy, you know what this means right? You're going to have to try extra hard tomorrow during training okay?" Jeremy nodded and I put him down so he could go have dinner.

I looked at Daryl and he was smiling.

The next couple of days, Daryl continued helping me with the kids, training them on how to shoot and how to properly use a knife. It was a lot of fun really, the kids listened a little bit better when Daryl was with me.

Jason and his gang continued going on runs, bringing back supplies left and right. Alexandria and the other ladies, focused on keeping things tidy and clean as well as planting. They cut fresh vegetables for us every day.

Daryl and I stood on watch most nights together at the gate. Sometimes I fell asleep but we took turns. Either he'd take a short nap or I would.

A couple weeks had now passed and Daryl and I hadn't gone out on a run since the last time when we got attacked. But it had been a while since we had left those walls so we decided to go on one. All the kids were getting sick too so they needed medicine, since I felt responsible for them, I felt like it was my duty to make sure they got better so Daryl and I decided to make a 150 mile out run.

I told Jason about it hoping he would approve and after a couple hours of arguing he agreed and said that if we took longer than a week he'd come find me. We assured him that we would be okay and that we would return safely. He was iffy about it but I didn't think it was a bad plan, I felt confident in myself as well as Daryl.

We left at dawn the upcoming day. Jason, Katherine, and Kody all walked us to the door to say goodbye. I kissed the kids and gave Jason a big ol' hug. Jason made us carry rifles and 2 handguns as well as back up ammunition for each. "Stay safe baby sis, I love you." He said.

"I love you too okay. Ill be back soon, please dont worry, stay here with the kids, I'll be fine." I said. "As for you two, listen to Jason kay, and make sure that the other kids feel better and dont get sick! Wash your hands and keep away from them, just make sure you all get a lot of rest! Okay?"

They both nodded and I padded Jason on the shoulder then we left. We had a car ready for us right outside the gates we packed it with supplies for a couple days just in case things got bad as well as plenty of ammunition and headed out.

Beth's POV

We've been on the road for a couple days now, after leaving that camp I couldn't help but feel a bit upset that we didn't just stay there after what has happened the last few days.

We ran out of gas not long after leaving. We went out looking for more but in the process found ourselves a herd of walkers and were then steered completely away from where the car was. We've been on foot for a like two days now, we are tired and are supplies are low.

We went into a neighborhood today and found a house we were able to secure from walkers. Olivia and I searched everywhere for supplies, all we found were a couple mints, cough drops, and chocolate bars.

We stayed there for the night moving the couch in front of the door making sure it couldn't be opened.

The next day Olivia and I decided to go through the other houses see if we could find anything else. Meanwhile Rachael stayed at the house.

Olivia and I had become really good friends, we were around the same age so we got along very well. She was funny, had a good personality and being with her and laughing at her jokes made me feel better about Daryl.

We were inside a house when we heard a walker upstairs. Olivia joked around acting like she was a cop searching a building and closely tippy toe up and down the halls, "I hear something!" she yelled.

"Could that be it?!" I said. "The one and only I have been searching for this whole time?!" I said sarcastically.

"Well we will have to see, but he must be a 10, if not then I don't approve!" Olivia joked.

We went up the stairs and opened the door the walker was locked behind. When the walker came out Olivia pushed him down the stairs. "Nope nope, he was like a 9.5, sorry won't do!" she laughed and she ran down the stairs and stabbed the walker in the head.

"I really like that one Olivia, thanks!" I said. Then we just laughed about it for a couple minutes as we continued searching the house.

After a couple hours we had finally finished scouting all the houses and headed back to meet Rachael. When we went inside the house we called for Rachael but no one answered. We began to look around and couldn't find her. I looked over at Olivia and she had worried look on her face, so I said.

"Don't panic, she's probably around here somewhere." we walked out through the backyard maybe she had gone outside for a bit.

Olivia and I walked around the backyard to and didn't see signs of anything until we heard a scream and we ran into the woods. We didn't know where the screams were coming from so we just kept running straight forward.

When we saw Rachael she was trying to pull a walker away from her as her son stayed behind her. There were two walkers one behind the other so she was having a hard time pushing them far away enough for her to stab one.

We came up behind them and Olivia grabbed one and I grabbed the other, we both stabbed them in the head.

"What were you thinking?!" Olivia screamed at Rachael.

"I-I I just came out here to get fresh air. And-and that happened." She answered nervously.

We heard steps behind us and Olivia and I turned right away putting our knives up in defense.

There were three people standing in front of us. One was a big strong man, he wore combat pants and boots, he had red hair and held a hand gun. The other was a guy with a mullet who was just standing there looking lost. The third was a female she had a rifle in her hand and was not pointing it at us.


	17. Washington

Beth's POV

"Well look at you two, tough little girl's aren't ya?" the big guy said.

"What do you want?!" Olivia yelled at him.

"We saw you take down those walkers, you girls are strong. How would you like to join us on our mission to save the world?" he said.

Olivia and I looked at each other puzzled. "What?!" I said.

"Eugene here is a scientist and my mission is to get him to Washington, he knows a cure and he will be able to get everything back to how it use to be" he said.

Now we were really confused, could he be serious?

"What's the cure?" Olivia asked him. "That's classified." the guy with the mullet answered.

"Are you serious?" Olivia asked, "I could not be more serious." the big guy answered.

"My name is Abraham, this is Eugene and Rosita." he introduced himself.

"My name is Olivia, this is Beth and that my sister and her son" Olivia said. "We're headed to Washington too."

"We would like for you to join us and help us protect Eugene on this mission to Washington." Abraham said. Olivia looked over at me and her sister who nodded in agreement, I just shrugged like ok.

So we decided to join them. We walked back to gather our stuff then followed them back to road. They were driving a huge military truck, we road in the back of it.

"Do you trust them?" I asked Olivia,

"I don't know but they're going to Washington too. Maybe they're looking for the same place we are." said Olivia.

I didn't think we could trust them so I was going to keep my guard up, something Daryl had taught me was that you couldn't trust everyone but I thought it was possible to give them a chance.

It was a couple hours later and we stopped because the truck ran out of gas. We were nowhere near any other vehicles so there was no way we could get more gas. Abraham was angry and began to yell.

It wasn't long that we stood there when a herd of walkers began to head our way. Our backs were facing the walkers so we did not see them coming the only one that did, was Eugene. He had never used a gun before but began to shoot at them, missing and shooting the truck.

Abraham yelled at him for wasting the ammunition and puncturing the gas tank making it useless. Eugene didn't hit one walker so the rest of us had to go fight them off.

Once we cleared the area, Abraham stood there glaring and extremely pissed at Eugene, we had no vehicle. We were screwed.

"We'll need to start walking, the suns going down in a couple hours, we will need to find shelter for the night." I said. I had really grown into someone who could really contribute to a group, I knew what was best for us to do and right now it was to find shelter.

We walked for a couple hours until we found a church, the windows were nailed shut and covered with wood pallets. We thought there either could be someone inside, or there once was.

Abraham approached the church first to secure it for the rest of us. Rosita followed behind him as he banged on the door with his big fists. No one answered nor did we hear any walkers inside. It wasn't till we heard a thump like something fell that we knew there was someone inside.

"Go away!" they finally said. "I have nothing here for you."

"We just need shelter for the night?" Abraham responded.

"How many of you are there?" the voice asked.

"7, there's 7." Abraham answered.

"I don't have food, if that's what you're looking for!" he said.

"That's okay we are not here for food." Abraham assures him.

After a couple minutes of conversing and hesitation, a man dressed in a black suit opened the door, he was dressed as a priest.

"I do not have any food or water if that is what you are seeking." he said.

"We just need shelter for the night, we do not wish to stay longer than a night, we have a destination and a time frame to reach it." Abraham said.

The man let us inside the church, he told us he was Father Gabriel and that this was his church before it all went bad. He had been living here since the beginning, he had a lot of empty food cans he had collected from a food drive that his church was having, but there was nothing left. He was alone the whole time and I personally didn't know if we could trust him.

I mean I didn't even really trust Abraham but, he was headed the same way we were.

Daryl's POV

Daniela and I had been driving for a couple hours now, we stopped every time we ran into a car to pump the gas. It slowed us down because before we knew it the sun was coming down. That night we slept in the car Daniela was in the back seat and I was in the front.

I couldn't sleep, it was impossible for me to sleep knowing there could be walkers out there. That they could come attack us any minute. I tried getting comfortable in the front seat and adjusted myself a couple times until I caught Daniela's attention.

"Can't sleep either huh?" She said. I stared out into the night sky and said, "Na."

"Hey can I ask you a question?" she asked shyly.

"Ya." I answered

"The girl you were with, the one you said was a survivor from your old group?" she began.

"Yeah what about her?" I asked.

"What do you think happened to her?" she asked.

I wasn't a share-my-feelings-kind-of-guy, I didn't like telling people how I felt.

"I don't know, I tried tracking her, I wanted to keep tracking her, but I didn't want to face something I didn't want to find out about." I said.

"You never know Daryl, she may still be out there. Just because things get hard sometimes doesnt mean you have to give up. Can I tell you something?" she said.

"Go head" I said.

"I know I don't know you and I didn't know you before either but, its okay to talk about it. If you want to talk about it...its okay to talk about it. Its never good to hold things in. Just so you know..."

I didn't say anything, then she moved over to the front seat and sat next to me.

"I had someone too, he was my fiancée, we were engaged for 6 months before the turn. Our wedding was supposed to be in the summer ha, I always wanted a summer wedding. It's sad to think that things will never be the same because this is the end and we're just living in it."


	18. If We Go Back

Daniela's POV  
\- - - - - - - - - - - -

"What happened to em?" Daryl asked.

"It was at the very beginning, he never saw what the world turned into. In a sense I think he lucked out." I paused. "Jason, the twins, and I were all getting ready to leave the city, I was picking him up at his house but he never came out, I ran inside and he was on the floor, his neighbor had bitten his neck and he bled to death. By the time I got there he was gone and I just couldnt deal with it."

"The walker came at me and I froze, I didnt know how to fight off a walker?! My brother came in and shot it in the head before it got to me. Then we left. It sucked for a long time, but I had to be strong for the twins and Jason because they were my only family and I felt fortunate to still have them all with me." I took a deep breath.

"So thats my story...tell me about you Daryl." I asked. He hesitated and said, "Na, why talk about the past."

"Because sometimes, its nice to live off of the good memories." I said.

"What if they aint good memories?" he said.

"Then you talk about them." I said.

"We were attacked by people at the prison we were staying at not by walkers. The same guy that attacked us killed my brother and let em turn, so when I found him, I had to kill em. I mean he was screwed up, he wasnt perfect, but he was my brother. He was killed before we were attacked but when we were attacked, that girl and I got out together...she was weak at first but she wanted to survive and she wanted to protect herself. So I taught her, I taught her how to hunt, I taught her how to track. She almost didnt even need me anymore."

"She grew strong and she had hope, she never gave up. Almost felt like she was the one who kept me going. We had lost everyone and everything. We were constantly on the move. We had finally found a good place, there was food there and it was secure but, I dont know what happened to her. She was just gone."

"Do you think shes still alive?!" I asked.

"I dont know, I found tracks of blood, I followed them till there was nothing else to track. I still tried looking keeping my guard up then you found me. I guess ts just about surviving now." he said.

"What if she's still out there, what if we she survived and she's looking for you? You never know Daryl, she may be thinking the same thing about you." I said.

Beth's POV

The next morning Father Gabriel let us take a the church bus, Abraham fixed it up a bit and we began to load our things into the bus. Father Gabriel slowly came walking towards the bus and said, "Can I got with you? I know you may think I'm not of much use to you but, but I can help look for food, I can contribute."

Abraham looked at him and said, "You want to contribute, you must help protect Eugene on our mission to Washington."

"I Will!" father Gabriel answered.

He joined our group the next couple of days we drove around in that bus, when it broke down we found a firetruck. We had stopped to get some rest when Eugene yelled out, "Im not a scientist, I lied, there is no cure!"

We were only miles away from Washington now, we were so close so Eugene hesitated.

Abraham was pissed, he punched him in the face and knocked him out. I couldnt believe he had lied but, we had to keep going. We were already so close to Washington we couldnt stop now

Abraham was just gone, he wasnt speaking he was on his knees on the side of the road and he wouldnt talk to any of us he would listen, he was dissapointed.

"We have to move on!" Rachael said. "We are so close."

No one answered her, "We can just go alone" Olivia suggested. "We'll use that map you have and we'll just walk from here?" Olivia spoke to Rachael.

We all looked at eachother contemplating whether that was a good idea or not. I shrugged letting them know I would agree with whatever they wanted to do.

"Ok then lets go." Rachael said. Abraham was still on his knees didnt listen to a word we said. Eugene was still passed out on the road and Rosita wished us good luck while father Gabriel waved at us from the inside the truck.

We grabbed our things then kept walking. It was mid day when we left the others so by sunset we were almost there.

Tryin to find the refugee in the middle of the night was bit a food idea, we had to find somewhere safe to sleep that night.

We found a old shed not too deep in the woods and slept there that night. The next morning we headed into the city. Rachael took out her map and we followed it to the safe zone.

We arrived to walls they were brick walls and the gate, the gate had been ran into by a car and was broken. It was then I knew there was nothing there. The face expression on Rachael face was extremely upsetting, all her hopes of finding a safe place and finding her husband were gone!

She ran to the door and slipped through the cracks of the crushed door, we all ran after her screaming her name. We didnt know what was on the other side.

"Rachael please stop!" Olivia called out. We followed her to the other side of the the doors and stopped when we saw there was nothing there. The buildings that were behind those walls were burned down and there were walkers roaming the area. Olivia ran to Rachael and said, "We have to go!" She grabbed her by the arm and pulled her.

The walkers began to follow us, first it was a couple then the herd began to grow. We ran down the street with a herd of walkers behind us, Rachaels son tripped and fell scrapping his knees, I ran back to pick him up, he could barely walk so we ran into the first building we saw on the side of the road.

I called for Rachael and Olivia to follow me and locked the door behind us and securing it by moving a cabinet in front of it. We made sure the area was clear then ran out the back door, Rachael and her son ran out first and Olivia and I followed.

Rachael ran out with no hesitation into a herd of walkers. There was nothing she and her son could do, once one got a hold of both of them only more came and they piled up on them. Rachael and her son screamed bloody murder and Olivia did too. I pulled Olivia back as quickly as I could and closed the door. We were surrounded by walkers, I didnt know what we do.

Olivia screamed and cried and I could not help but cry with her, we could still here their screams outside, it was the worst thing ever. Olivia was torn and I didnt know how to help her.

After a while I got up from the floor where Olivia was too and began to search inside the building. It looked lke a sports shop, there were golf clubs and bats. I immediately grabbed one of each, giving the bat to Olivia who was still crying on the floor. I walked around the store and found a walker locked inside a restroom, once I killed it, I went back to Olivia.

"Olivia we have to go, we cant stay here!" I said.

"And where are we going to go Beth?! We have no where to go?!" She was right.

After thinking for a moment I said, "No Olivia we can go back to that camp, we can go back there where its safe! Where there were walls, we can go get the others and go back there it was safe!" I screamed.


	19. Grady Memorial Hospital

Daniela's POV

Daryl had finally opened up to me as I did with him. I told him about Steven, my fiancée and how he died in the early stages of the change. I found myself able to talk about it better than I ever had, I guess I had finally been able to talk about it.

Daryl told me about the girl he was with before I found him, he said she was the one who changed his view of the world, someone who gave him hope. I could tell he really liked her, even though he never said it, I knew he did.

When he told me what happened the night they split up, I couldn't help but not make sense of it. Maybe she was taken maybe she was kidnapped, I thought. But I never would have assumed she died. I wanted to make Daryl feel better, so I expressed my thoughts on it and said, she may still be out there. And I really believed she could be.

It was just hard to lose a person who had become such a big part of your life, I know it's the apocalypse but we will never be able to get use to deaths, we'll will just learn how to mourn them.

The next few days we continued our travel, it was still slowly moving as we had to stop frequently. The place we were headed too was in the city, the city was a dangerous place to be, there were tons of walkers.

About 2 miles out we left the car and continued on foot, we were going to head into the Grady memorial hospital. We walked cautiously down the streets of Atlanta securing the area making sure we wouldn't be spotted by walkers or run into a herd.

We were just around the block from the hospital when we saw a car drive very fast past us and into the direction of the hospital. Daryl and I stood back hiding but keeping an eye on the car. We noticed these two men in police uniforms came out of the car and into the hospital.

"You think they're living in there? Why are they in uniforms too?" I said.

"I don't know but, you know what that means? We won't be able to go in there."

He was right, we were screwed, everything we needed was supposed to be in that hospital, there was no way we were going to be able to get by them, they probably had all the medication locked up.

"We can look for something else, maybe there's a pharmacy that hasn't been wiped out?" Daryl suggested.

I was too mad I couldn't believe we had come all this way only to find that we had no chance of getting what we needed.

After I got over my anger I agreed with Daryl's plan to find a pharmacy, we were at risk being in the city but now, we had to go deeper into the city making it even more dangerous for us. I didn't know about this, I just had a bad feeling.

Daryl's POV

Since we couldn't get into the hospital we had to go find somewhere else to get medicine. It sucks cause the city ain't a safe place and we'll have to go farther into it.

Daniela had a map with her so we were able to find a pharmacy she was familiar with.

"We need to get up high, on one of these buildings to check out that area, make sure there ain't headed towards a herd of walkers." I said.

So we went inside one of the tallest buildings close to the area. We ran into a walker here and there but got a good view of the area we were headed too and came up with a plan. On our way back down Daniela went through a tight spot of two cracked doors and I followed, "Daryl don't!" she yelled but I was already going through the doors.

I looked up and there was this guy, he was young, dark skin, he pointed a gun at us. "Give me your weapons!" He said.

Daniela handed over her rifle and crossbow. I slowly handed my rifle, "The crossbow too!" he yelled.

"Whatchu need two crossbows for?" I said. "You'll shoot me with it!" He said,

I slowly handed over my crossbow. He then forced us to turn around and left running.

I was really pissed at this point, he took my crossbow! "Luckily he didn't search us," Daniela said pulling out her handgun, I pulled out mine.

Then we ran after the kid.

He was gimpy so he didn't get far before we ran into him in one of the hallways. He shot at us and we shot back, I got close enough that I punched him and he fell causing a cabinet to fall on his leg, he was stuck underneath.

He called for us to help him but I wasn't going to help him, I grabbed my crossbow and rifle Daniela grabbed hers. "We can't just leave him there." Daniela said, "I ain't helping him." I said.

We were walking out when Daniela turned back and tried lifting the cabinet, it was too heavy for her so I gave in and helped her.

"Thank you!" The kid said, "You shot at us!" I yelled. "I'm sorry, I just needed weapons to get back home!" He claimed.

"Where are you coming from?" Daniela asked. "I was at Grady memorial hospital, they kept me there to work for them." he said.

"Who did?!" I asked. "These people, they use to be police officers, they have a bad system, if they help you out, you have to work for them but they never let you go. I escaped, I made it out and just want to get back to my family." he explained.

"You with those people from the hospital?" I made sure.

"Yeah." he answered.

"That's where we were headed, we needed medicine for the others back at the camp!" Daniela said.

"Na there ain't no way you can get anything from them, they got everything locked up, if you get in you won't make it out." he said.


	20. Travels

Beth's POV

Olivia didn't want to go anywhere or do anything. Her sister was just killed how could she deal, it reminded me of when I lost my dad. Loosing someone is the worst thing that can ever happen to you. I sat next to her and rubbed her back, I couldn't help but cry myself.

I needed to be strong for her and for us. We couldn't stay there much longer, we needed to get out of the city before night, it was not safe.

I let Olivia cry a bit longer but I needed to convince her to get up so we can head out. It took me a while but she finally agreed and we began to move. The walkers had cleared the area so we ran, we ran as fast and far as we could, getting out of the city.

We were just outside the border of the city when we found a car and drove it back. By nightfall we were back at the firetruck.

"What happened?" Rosita asked. Olivia broke down in tears, I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry. Rosita didn't ask again she obviously knew what had happened when she didn't see Rachael and her son with us.

Olivia cried the whole night and I stayed up with her. We all stayed at the top of the fire truck that night. Abraham was still furious at Eugene, they weren't even speaking.

At dawn I spoke to Abraham, "A couple weeks ago we found a camp, a camp with walls and good people. We only left because Rachael wanted to come to Washington, but we can go back there, they will take us in, they will help us. I think we should go there." I said.

Rosita overheard our conversation and told Abraham, "We should go!" Abraham looked back at her.

"There's nothing in Washington, they just found that out Abraham, we should go." Rosita said again.

Abraham nodded in agreement. We left a couple minutes later in the big fire truck.

Daniela's POV

"Are you saying you can help us get in there?" I asked.

"No! I'm telling you they are dangerous people, they don't have good intentions, the keys to the medication are locked in the leaders office, there is no way." He said.

We then heard walkers headed our way and began to run down the stairs. We reached the final floor and there were even more of them, we fought them off one by one. Using our guns, we fought our way through, the kid followed us and helped us fight them off with just his knife that he had.

We finally reached a safe spot, or so we thought because a walker came up behind me, catching me by surprise, grabbing my arm. But the kid was fast enough and stabbed it in the head before it could bite me.

"Thank you" I said catching my breath.

"You're welcome, you know I'm sorry about before, I didn't have any weapons except for my knife. I didn't know you guys were good people?" he said.

"How do you know we're good people?!" Daryl asked.

"You didn't leave me behind." he said.

"Where is your camp?" I asked.

"It's just outside Richmond." he answered.

I glanced at Daryl, debating on whether or not it was a good idea to invite him back to our camp or not, I couldn't read his thoughts so I thought okay well why not? Maybe if he helps us get to the pharmacy to get the medicine, we'll figure him out.

"You can come with us?" I said.

Daryl glared at me.

"To the hospital?" he asked, "No! back to our camp, although we do still need to get some medicine from a pharmacy nearby." I said.

He thought about it for a second and said, "Alright, okay, thank you...my name is Noah"

"Okay Noah, You can come back with us by proofing yourself by helping us out with this run ok? We still don't know you or can trust you...My name is Daniela, this is Daryl." I said.

"Yeah, ok, thank you".

We went over the plan with Noah, he was just a kid, a teenager, I didnt think he meant much harm but I was going to keep my guard up. We headed out following the plan we had came up with. If all went well then we were going too be able to make it out of the city by nightfall.

If everything went well.


	21. Captive

Beth's POV  
\- - - - - - - - -

It took us a couple days to get there, Olivia still wasn't doing so well, she cried a lot and I couldn't help but cry with her all the time. She was weak, we were weak, I never knew what to say to her, I didn't know how to try and make her feel better.

We were now only miles away from the camp, I was telling Abraham where to go. "Are we close?" Abraham asked.

"Yes, only about 2 miles away."

When we finally reached the doors, they all got off the truck. Abraham looked around and Rosita smiled, "Its a wall, there are walls here." she was surprised.

I walked closer to the door hoping someone would see us and come out. "Hey you're back!" a voice called from above the wall. It was Phillip one of the guards that had helped Olivia and I last time we were here when we got attacked by a walker.

"Hi, yes, we came back." I answered looking up at the wall. A couple minutes later someone came down and opened the door, "Welcome back!" Phillip said.

"Thank you Phillip, I'd like to introduce you to the rest of us, this is Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, and Father Gabriel. "They all walked up to Phillip and greeted him with a hand shake. "Nice to meet you all, let me go ahead and introduce you to Alexandria.

He called Alexandria over to us, she was going to show the others the camp, since Olivia and I had already gone through it we skipped it and I asked Olivia to follow me. We walked over to that spot in the meadow where we had sat before watching the kids play and letting the sun shine and the wind blow through our hair.

It was a beautiful spot and I know she needed to be away from everyone and so I felt that I needed to say, "We're safe Olivia, we are safe".

Daryl's POV

We headed out with our plan to get into the Pharmacy. The streets surrounding the area weren't too bad so we was going to move fast to get in. We walked cautiously through the streets, Noah came along.

We got inside the Pharmacy and killed a couple walkers inside, there wasn't a whole lot of medicine left but we took anything and everything we could find. We filled up our bags and headed to the door. Daniela went out first Noah and I grabbed some things and then followed a couple seconds behind.

Noah and I were about to step out of the door when a car came and hit Daniela, knocking her out. I was about to run after to help her when Noah held me back and said, "Don't! Don't go out there they will help her! But-but..." he stopped and I looked at two guys in uniform picking her up and putting her in their car.

"But what?!" I screamed to Noah. Those are the people, those are the people that held me captive, those are the people I escaped from!" He said. "Then lets go help her!" I said, trying to get through the door. "Don't! They'll be able to help her, she got hit by a car, they'll be able to help her, they have the resources, just let her go!" Noah said.

I continued watching as they pulled away. I turned back to Noah and said, "We have to safe her! We have to get her out of there!".

Beth's POV

Eugene, Abraham, Rosita and Father Gabriel all adjusted very well. They contributed everyday to the camp, Abraham led a group of men helping them build up the walls and ensure their security. Rosita helped the ladies with cleaning and planting the vegetables. Eugene helped a group of others maintaining the resources we had and working on making them last longer, while Father Gabriel established a service everyday.

I helped the same ladies that Rosita did but Olivia, she wasn't doing so great, she didn't really talk to me she didn't even really eat or sleep. I hardly got a word out of her, we have been here for 3 days now and she wasn't doing any better. I was worried for her, we were in a safe place, where we could build a life.

We stood watch together at night for the second time in a row, "Olivia, I know you don't want to talk about it but I think its the best thing to do". She still didn't say anything.

Then we heard something in the woods, I stood up and held my rifle up, "Did you hear that?" I asked Olivia. Then I heard it again, Olivia then stood up and held her rifle up too.

We looked down and at the ground and my mouth just dropped. I could not believe my eyes.


	22. Safe

Daryl's POV

"They have resources from the hospital that will help her get better, it'll only be better for her if she goes back with them." Noah said.  
I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to do. We had to get her back but Noah said these ain't good people, I couldn't just go in there alone.  
And I couldn't go back without her either.  
Jason would be pissed. We had to save her.

Beth's POV  
\- - - - - - - - - - -

I couldn't believe my eyes, it was dark out so Olivia and I played it safe keeping our rifles up. He got closer and closer along with others behind him. When he recognized me he put up his hands letting me know he meant no harm. "Beth?" he called out.

"Rick?!" I said. Then I noticed the other people with him were, Carl and Michone. They had survived! They really had survived! I took a deep breath and ran down to the door and opened it.

I ran up to them and gave them huge hugs! It had been months now since we got attacked at the prison, I couldn't believe there were other survivors out there, I couldn't believed we had met up.

"Beth! How long have you been here? Are you alone, is there any other survivors from the prison with you?" Rick asked.

"I've been here for a couple days and no, I'm alone. I was with Daryl for a while." Then I couldn't keep talking, that was just something I had a hard time talking about.

"Is, is he dead?" Rick asked. "He's just gone Rick."

I welcomed them into the camp and immediately took them to Jason who was okay with me welcoming them into the camp. I felt some sort of comfort knowing that I had finally met up with people I had known before, it gave me hope that maybe Maggie was out there and that we could even run into each other one day.

I introduced Olivia to Rick, Carl, and Michone, I explained to her how they use to be part of the group I was in before.

We offered them food and water, Rick didn't feel comfortable yet, he thought that he needed to keep his guard up because I had not been here that long and didn't know these people to well.

Alexandria showed them where they could sleep and finally rest. Michone was quiet too she didn't know what kind of a camp it was and if they would be safe here but, I felt safe.

The next morning Olivia and I sat next to Michone and Carl and ate breakfast while Rick spoke to Jason.

"Has it always been you 3, ever since the attack?" I asked.

"I was alone at first but then I found Rick and Carl." Michone said.

"Did you see Maggie get out?" I still asked with hope.

"No, I'm sorry Beth." She grabbed my shoulder.

"Its okay, just thought I'd ask."

"What about you, did you see anybody get out?" she asked.

"It was just Daryl and I" I said,

"What happened? Where is Daryl?" she asked.

"I don't know, we were together for a while but, he left for a hunt one day and I got attacked. By the time I came back, he wasn't there, he never came back. I kept moving, trying to look for him but I could find him, that's when I met Olivia and we found this place." I explained.

"I'm glad you're okay." Michone said. I smiled at her.

"How long has it been?!" Jason spoke to Richard loudly. We all turned to face him as Rick stood next to the two.

"About a week and 3 days." Richard answered. "Should we go look for her?"

"We know where she was headed to right?" Jason asked and Richard nodded. "Okay then lets get a car and supplies ready."

"I can help!" Rick answered. "I can go with you."

"You just got here, its okay. We appreciate you wanting to help but I think it'd be best if you stay." Jason answered.

"Alright then but if you change your mind we can help." Rick assured him.

Jason, Phillip, and Richard got a car with supplies ready to go. They left immediately, I hoped Daniela wasn't in trouble.


	23. Save Me

Daryl's POV

I didn't know if Noah and I could do this alone. He agreed he would help so we headed down to the lowest level of the closest building to the hospital. We were coming up with a plan when we heard someone come in through the front doors, it was Jason, Phillip, and Richard.

"Hey Daryl!" he called. "Where's my sister?" he looked around.

"They took her...the people from the hospital took her." I said. I explained to him what had happened and how Noah was once in that hospital and was willing to help us get her back. We then came up with a plan.

"We need to capture one of their own." Noah said. "We need to be able to use one of their own as a bargaining chip. Dawn, the leader she will threaten to hurt Daniela if we don't threaten to hurt one of hers."

"Okay then how do we get one of theirs?" Jason asked.

We were going to attract attention to ourselves, get them to come to us and hopefully capture them and keep them as hostages or use them as a sort of trade in.

It was getting late by then so we planned on heading out first thing in the morning.

It was dawn and Noah headed out first we followed slowly behind as he began to fire shots to bring attention to himself. We waited for them to come and when they didn't, he shot again.

After a while they showed up and ran after Noah, capturing him and handcuffing him, when they did, the four us came up behind them and pointed our guns to their heads.

We handcuffed them and took em back to where we were hiding out. We talked about our plan in front of them and one of the officers said, "Its not going to work."

"How do you know its not going to work?!" Jason asked.

"Its just not going to work, Dawn wont fall for it." he said.

"She'd rather spare you two then to give us my sister back?!' Jason asked.

"She just doesn't care." He finished saying.

Jason looked over at me and then at Noah. We stepped away from the tied up officers and Jason asked Noah, "You think they're right?"

"I think she'll be difficult about it but I think she'll go for it." Noah said.

Jason was now in doubt but we needed to try getting his sister back.

Daniela's POV

I opened my eyes catching my breath as I sat up. I looked around me, I was in a hospital. There were tubes and an IV hooked up to my arm. I had stitches on my other arm from a cut. I had no idea what I was doing here and what had happened.

I immediately got up, feeling massive pain. My body was sore and I had bruises all over but I was able to get up and slowly started looking for a weapon. I went to the door and opened it but before I could step out, a women dressed as a police officer and a doctor came in.

"Hi, I'm officer Dawn and this is Dr. Steven Edwards, we found you out in the city and hurt badly so we brought you in." the women officer explained.

"Fortunately there wasn't a whole lot of damage done you just need to rest, what is your name?" the doctor asked.

"My name is Daniela" I said holding up the IV as my weapon. "You wont need that, put it down." Dawn said.

I slowly put it down and she said, "Let doctor Stevens check you out, make sure you're getting better." she said walking out the door.

"Wait! I was with two others...are they here too?" I asked.

"No, you were alone." she answered.

I couldn't remember anything that had happened, where was Daryl and Noah, why weren't they here too? I felt frustrated trying to figure out what the heck had happened.

"Sit back down Daniela." the doctor asked. I sat on the hospital bed.

"Do you know what happened to you?" he asked.

"No I cant remember what happened, where we were, and where they are now." I said.

"Did you have a group?" I couldn't tell him that I had a group and a safe place, I still didn't know who these people were and what their intentions were. "Um no not really, just two others that were with me".

"But you had weapons on you and clean clothes". He said,

"Where are my weapons?! and the clean clothes...I like to keep clean." I said. I couldn't come up with a better lie, I was so disoriented, I just wanted to get out.

"I don't believe you." He said,

"I just want to get out of here, thank you, thank you for your help but I need to go now." I said, as he examined me.

"You can't leave, not now, you need to recover." he answered.

I could remember Noah telling me they had kept him here after they helped him and used him to clean and practically became their slave. I didn't want that to happen to me. I needed to find a way out and fast.


	24. Hope

Beth's POV

It's been a couple days that Jason and the others left to go find Daniela. The others were beginning to worry, they said they were never gone for more than a day or two but I guess their run was far.

"We can help?" Rick suggested to the man left in charge. "It's okay, if they don't come back within two days we will go find them." he answered.

"I can help too!" I said. I wanted to make myself useful to the group and contribute as much as I could.

Daryl's POV

We ignored the officer's comments and moved on with our plan. We met up with another pair of officers who we ambushed and told them to give Dawn our message.

Once Dawn agreed we were on the move into the hospital.

Daniela's POV

I found my clothes stored inside one of the cabinets in the hospital room, I got dressed.

Right as I was finished Dawn came in, "What do you think you're doing?" she asked,

"I'm leaving." I answered. "I have to find my friends."

"You can't leave, we helped you, we used valuable resources on you to help your recovery!" she spoke loud and clearly.

"I didn't ask you to use your resources on me, I didn't ask you to help me. You know, when you help someone it's because it's out of the kindness of your heart, not because you want to use them to work for you!" I said.

"Wait, how?...Noah? You met up with Noah didn't you?...Where is he Daniela? Where is Noah?" She asked.

Well crap, "I don't know what you're talking about." I said.

"You ran into Noah didn't you?!" She said.

One of the other officers came into the room, "Dawn, I need to speak with you."

She looked over at me, "Don't go anywhere." she said and walked out the door.

I ran to the door trying to open it, it was locked. I leaned my ear on the door once I heard them talking, "Dawn, she has a group and her brother, they have Morales and Jacobsen held hostage, they want to trade her in for them."

Omg! They knew where I was and were coming to save me!

Dawn took a deep breath and said, "I want Noah, they're with Noah, tell them to come."

I started banging on the door and trying to open it. But I was screwed it was locked from the outside, I wasn't getting out.

Daryl's POV

Dawn went for it and the officers took us into the hospital, they told us that we couldn't take our guns inside we said, "We ain't goin nowhere without our guns."

We walked up a hallway, Noah right behind us.

We went through these double doors and saw about 5 more officers and other people dressed in scrubs. Daniela was standing in the middle of them, she was pretty beat up but had her weapons with her.

"We'll do the exchange, same time." Jason said. Daniela moved and Dawn held her back.

"Hey!" I yelled. "First I need Noah, and then you can get her back. We looked at Noah, "That wasn't the deal" I said.

"He is one of mine, he must come back to me." she said.

Noah then stepped forward and said, "It's okay, I'll go, it's okay."

"You don't have to go" I said,

"No I'm sure about this." and he walked forward, Dawn finally let go of Daniela.

She ran into Noah and said, "Noah, you don't have to go with her." He nodded at her and kept walking.

Dawn then looked over at Noah and said, "I knew you'd come back."

Noah didn't hesitate for a second, he stabbed Dawn in the chest and she shot him in the head so fast it was almost as a reflex. Dawn looked down at his dead body and said, "I didn't mean to." I reacted as fast as I could and shot dawn right between the eyes with my crossbow. I couldn't believe she had just killed Noah! She was dead and I had killed her.


	25. Home

Daniela's POV

I held up my crossbow immediately after shooting Dawn as so did Daryl and the others. The officers pointed their guns back at us.

"Stop!" screamed one of theirs, "It was her, it was all her. You cant stay if you want to."

The officers slowly put down their guns and so did we. We weren't going to stay there, we didn't care to stay in that horrible place.

We decided to bury Noah, we didn't know him for more than a couple days but he we knew he was a good person. He deserved to be buried.

Jason and Richard finished the run for us, they went to the pharmacy and grabbed the medicine.

Daryl, Phillip, and I buried Noah just outside the city.

Daryl's POV

I was glad we saved Daniela but the way Noah was killed wasn't right.

Once we got out of the city we buried his body and headed back to the camp.

That night we slept in a barn then headed out first thing in the morning.

Beth's POV

Rick stood watch with Olivia and I at the gate that night. "What happened after the prison Beth?" Rick asked.

I took a deep breath because I didn't really want to talk about it. "Daryl and I got out together, I went back for Maggie and when I didn't find her, I ran into Daryl.

"Where is he?" Rick asked in hesitation.

"I don't know Rick, we were together for a while. We were at a house and that day he went on a run without me then these guys came in and attacked me, dragged me out and when I was finally able to escape from them I couldn't find my way back.

It took me a while but I made it back to the house and once I did, Daryl was gone. We stayed there a night, I still had hope he'd return but he didn't. I don't know what happened to him, I don't know if he was attacked, I don't even know if hes alive." I took a deep breath because I could feel my eyes getting watery.

"Anyway, Olivia and her sister found me, they were headed to Washington and on our way we ran into this camp, Phillip and Richard brought us in and the Leaders, Jason and Daniela offered us to stay but Olivia's sister wanted to go to Washington so I followed them.." I looked over at Olivia, I didn't want to say something to make her upset again.

"We didn't find anything in Washington so we came back..." I finished.

"Where's her sister?" Rick asked. I looked at him hoping he could read my mind. When he realized that Rachael hadn't made it he just nodded.

The rest of the night Rick talked about what he and Carl went through after the prison.

The next morning, while everyone ate breakfast the man left in charge announce to the adults that he was going to lead a team to go find the others if they didn't return my sun fall. Rick and I agreed to help if it came to it.

Daniela's POV

We found a big truck and drove it back to the camp, we were about 50 miles out as the sun began to set. I was just happy to head back home, I wanted to feel safe, I wanted to see the kids. It had been over a week since we had left the camp, I wanted to know everyone was safe.


	26. Angel Wings

Beth's POV

The sun was beginning to set and everyone was getting worried. Rick spoke to the guy in charge and asked him if we were heading out, "I don't think it's a good idea to leave at night but they may be in trouble, Jason left me a map of the route he and Daniela took so that what we can go off of that, if we had to go out looking for them" I heard him tell Rick.

I went over to Olivia and said, "Hey are you going to come?" I asked,

"Yeah" she agreed. We both got up from the bench we were sitting at outside the house. We walked over to the group and asked for weapons.

"Do you know how to shoot?" one of the guys asked me. I looked over at him smiled and said, "Yeah!" I was different, I was strong, and I knew how to take care of myself. I stood there and let my vision get blurry, I thought about Daryl at that moment and how he would be so proud of me. I don't think he would imagine I'd be the person I am today or have even survived this long on my own.

It was just Olivia, her sister and I, then our group grew and we met Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita, and now we are here and reunited with Rick, Michonne, and Carl. It was amazing really and it made me happy to think that Daryl, Maggie, and my dad would be proud of me.

Daniela's POV

Daryl and I sat in the far backseat of the SUV we were in. Phillip and Richard sat upfront while Jason drove. I leaned back on the seat putting my knees up and leaning them on the seat in front of me. I was tired and still hurting, "You okay?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah just sore that's all." I said. "Thank you for coming back for me by the way."

"I couldn't leave you, Noah and I were going to go get you when your brother found us. Then we worked out the whole plan." he said.

"What did you think when they took me? Did you right away assume they were bad people?" I said.

"I was going to, I was gona run out there but Noah held me back, he said they could help you because of the resources they have in the hospital and what not. I honestly didn't know what to do, I'm glad your brother showed up when he did." Daryl said.

"Me too! I felt like a prisoner no to mention the fact that they were cops in actual uniforms and acted like guards." we both chuckled.

I slightly leaned into him and I lay my head on his shoulder. I was tired and didn't think that relaxing my head on his shoulder was a bad thought nor did he mind.

Daryl was a really good person and a really good friend. He contributed to the group and helped out around the camp. I don't know what it was but he made me feel safe and comfortable. I was nervous but I slowly reached over and intertwined my fingers with his. He didn't pull away and I honesty did not know what I was feeling. I didn't even know if I liked him I just felt, in a way, close to him. Maybe I felt this way because he saved me and I all of a sudden had the perspective that he was my night and shining armor.

I couldn't let things like that get to me, it wasn't okay. I needed to be sure about how I felt about him. It was a risky move and I pretty much regretted it the moment I did it but I'm a girl and girls tend to over react. Maybe I was just blowing it out of proportion in my head causing my heart to beat 10 times faster than it usually did. I just needed to breathe for a little bit.

Once I calmed myself down I relaxed a bit and slowly fell asleep.

Daryl's POV

It didn't surprise me when Daniela leaned on my shoulder, we were good friends now and we took care of each other. It was almost like a brother, sister love, except she had a brother and they didn't get along as well as we did.

What did surprise me was that she grabbed my hand! I didn't know what that meant or if she was just wanting to feel comfort but it did surprise me. She didn't say anything either and I didn't know what to say, not that I ever really said much. Before I knew it she was asleep and then I was too.

Beth's POV

We had finally decided that we were going to go look for them We all gathered in a circle around a fire outside the house near the gate. The man in charge, handed guns and rifles to everyone who was going. Some of the other guys brought over a car. We began to pack things inside the truck when the guards at the gate yelled, "They're here!" We all looked up and one of the guys ran over to open the gate.

Their car drove in and we felt a bit of relief. I looked over at Olivia and smiled, I was glad they were back. Jason walked over to our fire as the others got off the car. "Hey guys! We're okay" Jason said, "We were just about to leave to go find you all!" the guy left in charge answered.

"Thanks man but we're cool, everyone's home and safe." Jason said, That made me happy.

Everyone around us began to talk and I sat down in front of the fire as so did Olivia. We enjoyed the warm air on our faces. I closed my eyes for a moment taking in the moment then I slowly opened my eyes.

I stared out in front of me and couldn't help but crease my forehead with a grin. I didn't know if what I was seeing was real or not but the flames made it hard to see. I could be imagining but I thought I saw Daryl's wings, could that be his vest, the angel wings?! Could that be Daryl?!

I immediately stood up startling the people around me. I couldn't believed it I couldn't believe it!

His back was turned towards be but it was him! I could recognize him from a mile away! It was Daryl!

My eyes began to fill with tears and I just couldn't believe it, "DARYL!" I screamed.


End file.
